Welcome to Billingham Golf Club

Since the last blog when we were experiencing the worst rain since 1963, what a change, one of the driest periods since the summer of 1976 … and that has brought its own problems, in that the sprinkler heads when needed have all but seized up, many requiring replacement, at a cost that we don’t need.

The Greens committee continue to meet on the last Thursday of the month with a full agenda, based around assisting the greens team in their endeavours to provide us with the best possible course for the conditions. We have received many commendations on how good the course is considering the weather, from guests and members alike.

Please take the time to say thanks and pass on any positive feedback to John Dales and his team … it will be welcomed. Any negative comments please field through the greens committee, where we can address.

We do have a company interested in cutting down our troublesome Poplars for “FREE” provided they can take and keep the wood, this would be a potential saving to the club of circa £70,000.00, an opportunity that we simply cannot ignore. It is planned to happen in October/November this year and you will see the dreaded “RED” spot appearing on those trees affected by the potential cull.

We are obviously taking the opportunity whilst we have the offer for free, to remove other potential problem trees such as the Sycamores behind the 6th green, as they are now affecting sunlight and drainage on the green and would need to be removed at some stage. The forester that has taken a look at the Poplars deems them too dangerous to remove from the top down and has indicated that they will be have to be felled first, before chopping up. Obviously detailed planning will be required throughout this exercise and the greens committee and the board of directors will be supervising and approving the plan.

Members will be kept informed on timing and the planning, initially it looks like it could be a 10 to 12 day scenario with 9 holes being taken out at any one time, so allowing golf to be played throughout.

The driving range netting has been replaced, and I think you will all agree that it is a much better solution than the previous attempt.

The greens team would request that traffic on the Tee’s be kept to a minimum, so could golfers not congregate on the tee and certainly refrain from practice swinging (taking unnecessary divots) on the tees.

This last month has been a busy month for the greens team, we have seen a huge spurt in growth and at the same time a reduction in numbers of greens staff with the resignation of the head greenskeeper. So the course has had many demands on the greens team and I would like to thank them all for the sterling work they have achieved through this difficult time. There have been many positive comments on the course throughout Captains Weekend and the club championship, with high praise from the many visitors. Of course there will always be criticism as that is the nature of things, but we must put that into context and keep positive.

I can announce that the board of Directors have agreed to appoint John Dales as the new head greenskeeper and hope that the Billingham members give John all their support in his promotion and new role. We have also agreed to appoint a new Deputy head greenskeeper in Roy Applegarth. He comes highly recommended from his previous role at the prestigious Rockcliffe Hall Golf Club. Roy’s task is to work closely with our current team and with fresh eyes help to develop Billingham Golf Course as “the place” where visitors will want to come and play and increase membership. He along with John Dales will work closely with the Greens team and Greens committee in developing our 5 year rolling plan for the course.

You may have noticed that we have two new pieces of machinery in and around the course, a new Iseki tractor/loader and a new Jacobson greens mower – replacing the old worn out units. This is also a new initiative and with time and increasing club membership we hope, over the next few years, to be able to increase our investment in our plant and machinery to the betterment of the golf course.

Lets hope for continuing good weather and we will endeavour to keep on top of the growth and over the next month make some inroads to better bunkers, and a start on tackling the pond at the 11th hole.

Keep all your constructive and encouraging comments coming in and we will try and address in the short term and plan for the long term.

Welcome to my first greens blog, each week or so I will be updating this page and keeping everyone informed on the course, its condition, and any improvements or planned works that will be taking place in addition to daily cutting and course preparation.

The course is starting to look well and when the rapid growth rate slows down we will be able to concentrate more time on tidying up some of the paths and unsightly areas which are crying out for attention, but with limited staff cutting is priority at the moment.

We have a consignment of bunker sand on order which is scheduled to be here on the 7th July, to top up the low ones.

This week, if the weather allows, we will be spraying the greens with fertiliser, pencil tining the greens, edging bunkers, all tees including the grass tee on the practice ground will be divotted and ironing the greens.

Now that the ditch between 11/13 is clear of weeds etc we hope to make a big dent into the reed problem in the pond, which not only is unsightly but is restricting water flow.

We would encourage every golfer to replace divots and repair pitch marks on the greens.

We are happy to receive comments especially positive ones, and will try and address the negative ones, but please be patient on the negative issues, we only have 4 greens staff and in growing season this is a large task to keep on top of.

Welcome to the greens blog, over the coming months we will be updating and keeping everyone informed on the course, its condition, and any improvements that will be taking place.

We would encourage every golfer to replace divots and repair pitch marks on the greens, this will free up our greens staff to maintain the golf course in the excellent condition that mother nature will allow.

We are happy to receive comments especially positive ones, and will try and address the negative ones, but please be patient on the negative issues, we only have 5 greens staff and in growing season this is a large task to keep on top of.